


Crash into my Heart

by maddymayscrawls



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crash Landing, I really don’t know what to tag, M/M, basically the galra didn’t turn evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 16:08:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16222595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maddymayscrawls/pseuds/maddymayscrawls
Summary: Originally for the This is a Spaceship zine.The Galra have reached out to make contact with the life on Earth, but the humans are not yet ready to make their existence public. Little do they know that a young boy has made contact in his own way, and it will change a young human’s life forever.





	Crash into my Heart

**Author's Note:**

> It breaks my heart that the zine has been cancelled. It is not without reason, though, and I am still very honored to have been a part of the team. And I am very happy to share my finished piece with you now.

**20 Years Ago**

Zarkon and Honerva were the universe’s leading interplanetary researchers. Much of what was known about various sectors of the universe was thanks to their exploration, discovery, and charting. It was also thanks to them that “The Alliance for Discovery”, an intergalactic network which allowed for shared resources and open relations, was formed.

When Honerva learned that she was going to have a child, she knew it was going to change things. Travelling through wormholes or at speeds of many light years per second simply wasn’t safe for an expecting woman. She ended up staying home for many decaphoebs caring for the young child.

It was Lotor’s eighth birthday when Zarkon and Honerva finally decided he was ready to join them on their journeys. There was a small planet which Zarkon had discovered recently, nestled in a tiny solar system. This was where they were going.

Lotor had been so excited to come to a new planet, but soon found that he was bored with the reality of it. He wasn’t exploring or fighting off wild beasts or learning amazing new customs like he had thought. Instead he was just sitting in the corner of the room while his parents talked to some stuffy weird men.

Finally fed up, he stood from his place and edged toward the door. When he was sure his parents weren’t going to stop him, he slipped out and made his way through the sterile building to the outside. It was so refreshing. This planet was so...alive. Plants covered grand expanses of the surface, much different from the dry, technology-driven world of Daibazal. If he stood still, he would catch faint traces of animals travelling through the underbrush. He didn’t want to stay still, though. He wanted to experience as much as he could before his parents’ meeting ended, so he walked quicker, and quicker, until he finally broke into a sprint. Forget the planet feeling alive, now  _ he  _ felt alive. More alive than he had felt before.

It wasn’t long into his journey that he found himself pulling up short. Off in the distance off the side of the road was a small building which he presumed to be a dwelling for the inhabitants of the planet. If he squinted, he could make out a small person, close to Lotor’s size, moving about in the grass in front of the house. He couldn’t contain his curiosity as he crept closer. The full grown creatures here may be boring, but what of the children?

His plan was to avoid being seen. As he got within a distance where detection would be almost inevitable, he ducked into the tall grass on the side of the path, thinking it would serve as sufficient cover. 

Unfortunately, he greatly underestimated human curiosity. The slight shake of the weeds caused the child to trot over to investigate. It wasn’t long before they were face to face, a broad grin spreading over the other child’s face. He began excitedly shouting in a language Lotor couldn’t hope to understand. 

“I don’t speak your language,” he said. He knew there was less chance of the boy understanding him, but at least this might provide an indicator that they were operating on a strong language barrier. 

It didn’t work, and the child continued spouting off words with Lotor staring back blankly before recognition finally dawned. The child changed tactics and just pointed to himself. “Lance!” He stated proudly. Lotor presumed it to be a name.

“Lotor,” he stated back, motioning to himself.

From there communication was carried out through motions. Lance was rather adept for someone of such a young age, and soon had Lotor engaged in a game of pretend house. It wasn’t easy, since domestic customs varied between Earth and Daibazal, but they managed to make it work. Halfway through an activity Lance had called “mud pies”, Lotor found himself smiling. He was….having fun. 

After they were sufficiently dirtied and tired, Lance grabbed Lotor’s hand and began leading him away into a thicket of trees behind the dwelling. Lotor was a bit wary of this, but the day had been so fulfilling. He couldn’t help but trust the boy gripping his hand.

They stopped beneath what must have been the largest tree. Once at the bottom, Lotor couldn’t see past the trunk. A glance upwards revealed large branches which spread out with thick foliage sprouting from them, and there, nestled among them, was a small wooden box which appeared to be mimicking the building Lance supposedly lived in. 

Lance smiled at Lotor before pointing upwards. He began to climb the tree with seemingly no footholds. Lotor was shocked at the abilities of this species for a moment before he looked closer and discovered the simple wooden planks that were fixed to the tree to form a makeshift climbing aid. Having come this far, Lotor couldn’t see himself turning back, so he took a breath and followed after. Before long he found himself climbing through a hole in the bottom of the wooden box. The interior astounded him.

Firstly, the floor was completely lined with fluffy cushions and soft covers. There were what he assumed to be toys scattered about, as well as boxes with bright lettering and bold pictures of people who were clearly having fun. One corner held a stack of various collections of bound pages, and another held various small plastic packages. Lance was holding one of these while lifting the contents into his mouth, so Lotor assumed it to be food. 

They stayed in the little box for what felt like such a short time, but must have been a while. When they emerged after a voice had yelled at them from below, the planet’s sun had disappeared, leaving a moon in its place. 

Surprisingly, nobody was waiting for them at the bottom of the tree, despite Lotors expectation of an angry parent. When they reached the ground, though, Lance looked at Lotor with sad eyes. He pointed at himself, then back towards his shelter. Right. He was just a child. He was bound to go home eventually. Lotor himself should probably find his way back to his parents as well…

Lotor nodded, and, to his surprise, Lance flung himself forward to wrap his arms around Lotor’s torso. It wasn’t a gesture Lotor was overly familiar with, but his mother had done it a few times. He hesitantly returned it, earning a smile from Lance. When they parted, Lance grabbed his hand, and this is how they walked back out to the main path before going their separate ways.

**Present Day**

It was a story that Lance had told a lot when he was younger. The strange purple-skinned, white-haired boy named Lotor who had joined him to play one afternoon when he was six. Being a six year old, nobody had believed him. His mother had believed him at first, but when Lance was still bringing it up over a year later she took him aside and calmly explained what an imaginary friend is. From then, any time he mentioned Lotor he was met with the words, “Oh, your imaginary friend Lotor?” 

Somewhere along the way he started to believe them, and with time the most amazing day of his life became just another forgotten memory.

At twenty-six, he found life much less exciting. Though he had once dreamed of being out among the stars, exploring the expanse of space, maybe even being the first man on Mars, that dream had also been squashed as he grew older. Once a cute kid in a cardboard rocket, now a washed up salaryman with a boring 9-5 desk job because reality hit him like a semi. Average people like him didn’t go to space. You have to be rich or a genius for that.

Then one day, as he was drinking his coffee and catching up on the latest depressing news, he was jarred from his thoughts by the loudest crash he had ever heard. It sounded like a train had derailed behind his house. He was almost too scared to check into what had happened….Almost.

He crept towards his back door, all the while telling himself that it was probably fine. A stray must have knocked over his garbage can or something. He was just so absorbed in that local-teen-killed-in-car-crash story that his mind misinterpreted it. This turned out to be the wrong course of action. Reassuring himself that everything was ok made reality that much more shocking. 

In his backyard, half buried in the dirt, a trail of scorched trees and scarred earth in its wake, was a real life, honest-to-god, spaceship. Ok, so he couldn’t say for  _ sure _ that that was what was there, but Lance had studied aircrafts and spacecrafts a lot when he was little, and nothing like this had ever come up. It looked like an escape pod you would see on a movie. Small wings, just enough room for the pilot….the pilot!!

Lance rushed forward, desperately searching for a way to open the stupid hatch. If this thing crashed in his yard, there was probably someone inside, and that person was probably hurt. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be a clear mechanism. No buttons or levers stood out. What if it was something where only the pilot could get themself out? 

After a while spent searching, he finally became frustrated and kicked the pod. It was a bad plan, since a throbbing pain immediately started in his foot. He was jumping around holding the injured appendage when a hiss came out of the pod beside him...and the top slowly opened.

“Oh come on!” he shouted to nobody in particular, “What kind of overdone, bullshit movie cliche was that?!”

There really wasn’t time for shouting at the universe, though. He still needed to check on whoever was inside. He inched toward the ship, the pain in his foot already forgotten. As he peeked over the edge...he screamed and backpedaled. That...was not a human. He really shouldn’t have been expecting a human, what with the conclusion that it wasn’t a human ship, but he still wasn’t expecting…..that.

The man had lavender skin and pointed ears. His hair circled around his face in a billowing white cloud. Though, the longer Lance looked the more he realized that other than those things he wasn’t really all that different from a human. And besides, human or not the man had crash landed and was currently unconscious. Helping him needed to come first; follow up plans could come later.

Or so Lance thought, but once he had the alien man inside, nestled in his bed, he began to panic. He paced the floor, gripping his hair as he muttered to himself, “What am I  _ doing?!  _ I just put an  _ alien _ in my  _ bed! _ He could wake up any minute and eat me! Or kill me! Or kidnap me and take me back to his people where they’ll probe me and….nope nope can’t think about that. It won’t happen...right? He’s probably...peaceful….probably…Heck I bet he doesn’t even eat meat!”

He went over to the man and gently nudged his upper lip. Beneath it, gleaming white teeth were revealed, including canines which were way too sharp to be herbivorous. He gulped, but stood his ground as he lifted up the man’s arm. He gingerly removed the glove from his hand and had to hold back a squeal, because damn those were some sharp claws.

“Ok,” he said quietly, because talking out loud really was making him feel better, “So this guy is probably an apex predator...and might actually kill me. But he also obviously comes from an intelligent species, so maybe he’ll be sympathetic to the fact that I saved him. Yep. That sounds right. So now I just...gotta wait and see.”

He tried his best to go back to his normal routines. Wake up, go to work, come home, relax, go to bed, repeat. But somehow the unconscious man became part of them as well. He found himself thinking out loud, spilling secrets, and even asking advice from the person who had no choice but to listen. He would have thought himself crazy if it weren’t so therapeutic.

It was during one of these chatter sessions that the man finally awoke. Lance was mid-rant about his annoying, gossipy coworker when he felt a hand caress his cheek. He shot out of his seat and squealed, assuming a guarded stance with his hands raised. The man was staring at him, the smallest of smiles on his lips.

“Lance…” he said, and lance was  _ sure _ he’d heard wrong.

“H-how do you know my name?!” he half-shouted. The whole situation just got way freakier.

The man began to speak, but this time the words were completely unintelligible. Strings of sounds Lane couldn’t even match to a country if he tried. Soon, though, his words trailed off. He gave one final statement in a questioning tone, to which Lance responded with a blank stare. Then he slapped a hand over his face and looked around frantically. He must not have found what he was looking for, because he then reached up to the side of his face. He seemed to play with his ear before reaching for Lance’s. Lance was frozen, and once again had to convince himself that everything would be fine as he felt something small slide into his ear canal.

“I’m sorry,” This time when the man spoke his words came through. Whatever he put in Lance’s ear must have been working, “We can’t communicate like this...Would you be willing to tell me where my ship is so I can retrieve my other translator?” 

“Yeah, sure, it’s--” Lance began before remembering that, duh, if he has the translator then Mr. Alien didn’t. He nodded instead and motioned for Lotor to follow him out to the yard. A small amount of rummaging later and the men were stood in front of each other, finally on equal ground.

“Ok, Mr. Alien. Answer my question. How do you know my name?”

The man blinked, then laughed, “Oh, I see. You don’t remember me. That makes sense. It has been a long time, after all.” He gestured to himself, “I am Lotor of the Galra. I came to Earth many years ago, and it is here that I met you, Lance.” 

Lance stood for a bit as the meaning of Lotor’s words sank in. His eyes widened when it finally hit, “Whoa whoa whoa,” he threw his hands up in front of himself, “You gotta warn a guy before you drop that kinda thing. I...I’m gonna need to sit down. Let’s go back inside.”

They sat at the table as Lotor recounted his entire life story. Beginning with his parent’s occupation, which brought him to Earth the first time. They hadn’t been happy when he returned from his adventure. It was the last time they took him on an expedition, but Lotor couldn’t forget how fascinating Earth had been. Every chance he got, he poured over his parents’ research notes, learning everything he could about the lively planet and its inhabitants. Eventually it became too much. He stopped searching for knowledge and began plotting his return. The notes gave very clear coordinates for the planet, but since his parents primarily travelled by wormhole there were no notes explaining how to get there. Lotor ended up having to scour intergalactic maps to find the fastest route. This in and of itself took years, but he was determined. Once he had finished all that was left was to gather supplies and steal a ship. He had hoped for a larger one, but slipping out in the night was easier in the stealthy pod he’d chosen. Soon, he was on his way.

“But I miscalculated,” he said, “There was a band of asteroids just past the little red planet. Based on the map it seemed easily traversable. I was blindsided by a large one and lost one of my thrusters. It was all I could do to navigate here. I can’t believe my luck, that I landed at your home.” 

Lance groaned and laid his head on the table. He was right. This was too much to take in. Aliens had been to Earth before? He wasn’t really surprised, with all the conspiracy theories out there, but learning that they were true was still eye opening. And apparently he had made one of them imprint on him or something? Because they played together for one day?

“Wait!” He shot out of his seat and pointed at Lotor, “You’re my imaginary friend!”

Lotor raised an eyebrow, “Pardon?”

“The purple kid who came and played with me when I was six! Nobody believed me! They said you were fake, that I made you up! But you’re not! You’re real!....right?”

“Yes, last I checked,” Lotor said with a chuckle, “It’s great to see you again, Lance.”

“How long are you gonna stay? Not that I want you to leave! I just figure….you gotta go home sometime, right?”

“Unfortunately, yes. It is likely only a matter of time before my parents come after me. How long have I been here already?”

Lance had to think about it for a moment, “Uhhh….about four days I think?”

Lotor’s expression turned a lot less pleasant, “Damn. I was hoping to enjoy my time here...but it seems I may not be able to. I  hope to leave by the week’s end, and my ship needs repaired.”

“Oh, that’s...pretty soon, huh?” Lance wasn’t sure why he was so disappointed. Magical childhood aside he didn’t really know this guy, and if he didn’t want kidnapped by the government it was probably better to get him out as soon as possible.

“Yes. Though it may end up being pushed back. I don’t have the proper equipment, meaning I will need to improvise with materials from this planet. Would you be willing to help me gather them?”

Now  _ that _ got Lance excited. He was going to get to help work on a spaceship? Heck yeah! “I mean, if you want my help! Yeah! Of course! Oh...except…”

“Except?”

“Well, mechanical parts aren’t really cheap...and I don’t make a lot of money….” Lance chewed his lip as he thought, “Well, we could maybe get some from the scrap yard. If we’re creative it could work….”

“Whatever we need to do,” Lotor laid his hand over Lance’s, “I trust you.” Lance chose to ignore the butterflies that erupted in his stomach.

Fixing Lotor’s ship really wasn’t easy, but the guy turned out to be a genius. All Lance had to do was find him scraps in the dump, and he transformed them into workable parts. Wires out of old appliances got revamped to direct power to the damaged thruster. The engine from a  _ lawn mower _ of all things became the main force, and Lotor was able to rig these with plain gasoline and carefully shaped metal sheets to form a fully functioning rocket. With the biggest obstacle out of the way, the rest of the repairs were easy. Buffing out scratches, smoothing dents, patching holes with metal and tar. 

All of this took about two weeks, but the time passed way too fast. Lance found himself growing closer to Lotor as they shared tales of their lives. Lotor was enchanted by Lance’s mundane tales of eating his mother’s food, playing with his siblings, attending college. Likewise, Lance couldn’t get enough of the stories about Daibazal. It sounded like something straight out of a sci-fi novel, but it was real. With someone there to talk to his daily grind in the office seemed so insignificant. He had someone to get home to, an exciting life waiting for him beyond his stuffy cubicle walls. So what did it matter if he spent eight hours there? It was for a good reason.

Then the day of Lotor’s departure came, and Lance felt like his heart was going to be ripped from his chest. He knew it was coming, but he couldn’t stand to face it. 

They had decided it would be easiest for Lotor to leave undetected was for him to go in daylight. The flames and lights from his ship would be less visible that way. Lance had also wanted to tow the ship to an easier launch point, but it would be hard to do that without drawing unwanted attention. Instead, they stood in his back yard, facing each other just like the day Lotor woke up.

“So...this is it, huh?” Lance said, the disappointment clear in his voice.

“Yes...It is.” Lotor took a deep breath, “Lance...these past weeks have been the best of my life. I came here chasing a memory, and I’m leaving with more than I could have hoped. I…”

He huffed in frustration, and before Lance had time to process what wa happening he was being kissed. Soft, warm lips slotted against his with a hesitant force. Normally he would have panicked, but now he found himself kissing back easily. His eyes drifted closed, and the world seemed to shrink down into that little space on his lawn.  _ Oh.  _ he thought to himself,  _ That’s what I’ve been feeling… _

Lotor pulled back and gently rested their foreheads together, “Come with me. I want to show you the wonders of my home, too.”

“I….” He wanted to say yes. He wanted to say yes  _ so badly, _ but, “I just can’t…” he looked up into Lotor’s eyes, “My whole life is here. My mom’s cooking, my family, every broken heart I’ve had in the past. I know it was easy for you to leave your parents behind, but I love mine and I could never do that to them. I’m sorry.”

A sad smile spread on Lotor’s lips, “I guess there’s no helping it. I shouldn’t have been so foolish as to think two weeks with me could erase a lifetime of memories. But please know that this isn’t the last you’ll see of me. Whatever it takes, I promise I will come back to you.”

This time Lance kissed Lotor, a gentle press of lips to cheek, before placing his mouth on Lotor’s ear and whispering, “You better.”

Then he turned and walked back toward his house. He couldn’t bear to let Lotor see the tears that were streaming down his face, nor could he stand to watch as the ship slowly rose into the atmosphere. 

Sometimes he really hated how easily he got attached.

 


End file.
